Where The Alchemy Index was Thrice saying, "Look, here's four different ways to compartmentalise us," Beggars sees them at their most difficult to pin down. Honing the sound of Vheissu but with softer, more groove-oriented rhythms, they've crafted something which runs together and seems a coherent whole. It leans in certain directions but always stands up straight in the end; the Radiohead influence is clear on Circles, and there are hints of TAI's Earth CD in many of these tracks. The Weight is arguably the best song they've ever written, but Beggars as a whole is beautiful, passionate and just jaw-droppingly good. It's probably an indication of the high standards they set that I believe they're yet to make their masterpiece, but for most bands on the planet, this would be far and away the most impressive release of their career.

Thrice continues to surprise with Beggars. The album is definitely a bit more uptempo (in spots) than either Vheissu or The Alchemy Index, but unlike past works, Thrice has learned how to really groove within a song as opposed to letting the structure control the music ("All The World Is Mad", "The Weight"). The band has also continued their unabashed love of Radiohead ("Circles", In Exile") and has almost completely jettisoned their post-hardcore past, with the exception of "Talking Through Glass" (which just may be one of the best songs they've ever done). Let's face it, Thrice will never put out Illusion Of Safety 2. The record does slip a little with some of the slower, quieter numbers as they all sound very similar to one another, and the album lacks the epic production/composition of Vheissu and Alchemy, but this record is far and away the most cohesive work they've done since Vheissu.

Every song sounds the same, and the track lengths are long as well, which is a good thing when there are shifts in the music, but this is just too bland. It's a shame, because I was really looking forward to hearing more experimentation from them.

At first listen I am felt slightly let down. Thrice is starting to become very generic alt-rock. To me they hit a high point with Vheissu and completely mastered their work with The Alchemy Index. Beggars has no real hooks and nothing really discernible about their sound. While there are some high points the CD as a whole has really given their listeners much. But then again, after the Alchemy Index, who was expecting another masterwork?

A grandiose, sprawling epic. With multiple emotional highs and lows, this album will be
listened to over and over and over and over again. This is a borderline classic. Every
little niche and detail of this album is so meticulously thought out.

Ok, I cheated and downloaded it...even with the Vagrant watermark, I'm floored. Just when you think you've got these guys pegged as one thing, they go on and evolve on you. Circles is the best song on this album by far. Awesome, awesome layering of sounds, usage of unique chords and great vocals by Dustin.
Another classic.
The question is, where could they possibly go from here??

Thrice finally got their "Radiohead" album. Moody, Atmospheric, and raw are a few ways to describe this. Still very much so Thrice, but more Dustin singing. The only complaint I have about this album is it's really too short.

A couple of good songs here. Most of it just seems to mesh together without any real distinction throughout. This really doesn't live up to Thrice standards(or hype). Kinda boring, and dragged on in more than one place. Thrice fanboys will eat this up without realizing it's really not that great. Sorry guys.

I came. With that said, this album certainly has its own particular ethos, yet it noticeably progresses from Vheissu. The chilly atmosphere that characterized Vheissu is there in the background of some tracks, but there is also a hint of blues that gives the tracks something special. The vocals and the production are outstanding. The songs have a groove to them that brings the rock in a much more accessible way than what the band was doing on their early albums. While some might find the lack of post-hardcore an act of heresy for a band that flourished from that sound, I can embrace Beggars as the result of maturing musicians who are reaching for a sound that has soul.

After 2005's "Vheissu", Thrice have failed to put out an album worth listening to in its entirety. If you pick through all of the tracks from their last album "The Alchemy Index," you'll wind up with a pretty great album and a bunch of sorry duds left over. The sheer amount of songs released from their elemental experiments provided enough good material (12 songs or so) to keep me satisfied. "Beggars" unfortunately doesn't have such a vast amount of songs to draw from, and sadly results in only three decent tracks out of the album's full ten. "Beggars" opens right on the wrong foot with "All The World Is Mad," an ugly, clunky tune that left me feeling nauseous. "The Weight" works to repair some the damage done by the previous track with a memorable bluesy riff and some strong vocals (both of which are very uncommon on Beggars). "The Weight", along with "In Exile" and "Talking Through Glass," are thankfully Thrice in almost perfect form. "Talking Through Glass" doesn't conclude on the best note, and "In Exile" is hindered by some obnoxiously repetitive snare hits, but both are still very enjoyable songs. The same can not be said for the rest of the album, for the mistakes made in songs like "Doublespeak," which starts out with some ear catching piano, ruin them entirely with awful choruses or an utter lack of inspiration. And some songs are even worse off. "The Great Exchange" is made unlistenable by frenetic and sloppy drums, and the title track is destroyed by absolutely grueling vocal work. On "Beggars," melody has been traded for dissonance and ambition has been traded for restrictions. The album is either made of screeching guitar noise or post rock nothingness, both of which are completely forgettable. If Thrice wanted to simplify themselves, they have wholly succeeded - they are now garage band status.

Where's The Alchemy Index influences? Vheissu? The greatly progressive sounds they've developed over the past few years have been suddenly dropped to the floor in favour of a bare bones, alternative rock-esque style. And yet, it's still damn awesome.

With Beggars, Thrice reach the epitome of their craft. Refined yet aggressive, the band manages to grasp all aspects of their sound over the years and subtly weave them into every second of Beggars. From the airy atmosphere of Circles to the conviction of Beggars, Thrice's latest album includes every reason why we love them. Beggars envelopes the sound of Thrice into a masterpiece. Oh, and of course, lyrically it is perfect.

I guess Thrice is all about progression. I didn't think they could do any more of that after The Alchemy Index, but they seemed to expand on that sound plus make it new with Beggars, which disappointed me at first. But after some more listens, I've come to realize that this album is really a whole new Thrice, and it's a sweet, original sound. Give Thrice two points for making an original album and a bonus point for still sounding themselves, because this nigh-impossible task is exactly what they did with Beggars.

This album is some kind of masterpiece, it's the most well thought out thrice album as well as their most laid back and relaxed. I love everything to the pictures in the lyric book to the cracks in dustins voice to the groovy guitars.

After the phenomenally ambitious if slightly disappointing concept "The Alchemy Index" Thrice are signalling their intentions toward another genre shift, this time transmogrifying into a more mainstream friendly alt-rock act. If you enjoyed "The Alchemy Index", especially the "Earth" EP, then there is a good chance you'll be wholly satisfied with the majority of "Beggars". There is a very natural progression from this EP to "Beggars" with a large influence from Dustin's solo work creeping into the band's sound. However despite treading unfamiliar territory there is something comfortingly familiar in the majority of the material here. "Wood & Wire" could easily have come from either "The Alchemy Index" or Thrice's last 'proper' album "Vheissu" with an ending reminiscent to that of "Red Sky" four years ago. While the album is unsurprisingly consistent, the two outstanding highlights "In Exile" and the eponymous "Beggars" are similar only in that they both manage to slow the albums tempo and harness the roaming guitars, instead focussing intensely on Dustin's much improved vocals. In essence "Beggars" is a stepping stone album and when looked at in this light is a rather remarkable piece of work.

Someone needs to change the genre listings of Thrice to include Alt-rock, possibly even as the primary genre. Those looking for a post-hardcore record here in the same vein as Illusion of Safety will be dissapointed. Well, probably not dissapointed, but surprised. Pleasantly. This album rocks faces regardless of what you thought of their earlier work.

For some reason, this album is exactly what I'm looking for in music right now. Something that has passion, certainly, but also something that also revels in setting a mood. Better than the Index for now, we'll see how the songs grow on me.

All the fanboys on this site are and will overhype the crap out of this. (Including myself). But if you haven't listened to it yet, it should at least behoove you to give this album a shot. It is def. worthy of that.

After Listening to this CD for about two weeks straight i feel i have to write another review. This CD is exceptional. Thrice have proven to be the masters of getting the exact sound they want replicated on the CD. Now i must say, it seems all of the instruments have been toned down a little on this CD. I mean a few songs Riley will let go on the drums, but for the most part the drumming and guitar are rather modest on this CD. However, this in no wayy makes the CD bad, in fact the "Less is More" principle really shines through on this CD m ore than any other CD i have ever heard. Riley really brings these songs alive, his choice of drumming (whether its technical or modest) compliments every song perfectly. The guitar on this CD is very modest but it just fits into every song perfectly. I think Dustin has really torn through all the encryption in lyrics and is very blatant on what he is saying on this CD. The lyrics are still amazing they just aren't as encrypted on this CD as they were on other albums. His voice once again has improved and i think he really captured his voice on this album the best. This CD is Thrice, no doubt about it. They have really broken through all genre borders and once again have produced an Album that defies classification. This is their best work and will be the hardest to beat, but if Thrice has shown us anything its that they can always out do themselves.

Decent 4 - A lot of growing involved.... Thanks god not all of it is as terrible as the first bass line you will hear on this album. ,,Beggars'' has more indie theme and it sticks really well with it, but maybe it sometimes really lacks experimentation. Dustin is as always excelent, mainly on more emotional or slower cuts like (The weight, Circles, Wood and Wire and S/T) Teppei's playing is quite diverse, but he's mostly playing slower airy riffs, some of them are phenomenal (Circles, Beggars) some of them are pretty average (Doublespeak, At the last). Riley's drumming complements the music in a big way, but sadly he is not highlighted at all. And even though I am pretty harsh on this album, it is really fantastic work, the album flows really well and it doesn't have any bad song on it, maybe some parts are slightly poor (Chorus - At the last, Bass on some cuts, but mainly on All the world is mad), but this album is full of highlights - ,,Circles'' is perfectly executed, it has a lot of detail and mainly phenomenal cruscendo on the end, ,,Wood and Wire'' - is really emotionally captivating and Dustin's vocals and lyrics are so enjoyable, ,,Talking through...'' has the best chorus, and the best song on the album ,,Beggars'' has really catchy tune, Dustin's progressive performance and overall progressive structure builds this song perfectly for the huge final instrumental cruscendo on the end, it is just so perfect

A milestone in band compatibility and musical comfort. Each song on Beggars represents a different shade of color and a personality of it's own, but rather than limiting itself to representing a rainbow when listened to as a whole, it effectively showcases the collaborative talents only capable of experienced individuals such as these men. From beginning to end, Beggars weaves in and out of familiarity from their experimental ways without feeling too abstract and showy, and the masterful stories woven in Dustin's mind are complimented by near-perfect musicianship. This is the true definition of a band working together as one machine, and nothing less than a perfect album.

Ok, after a few listens, I'm sold! This album showcases Dustin's vocals more than any Thrice album before. Thrice will, sadly, never make another album like "The Artist in the Ambulance" or "Illusions of Safety," but the evolution that this band has made as a unit is one of the biggest musical joys I've had following any single band.

Well what can I say this is a superb record
The band is great and so is their live sound
Songs like "The Weight" - one of the best love songs of all time!
or "Exile" make you want to listen to the album over and over again
There are no weak moments on this album so give it a listen - NOW!

Thrice takes yet another step in redefining themselves following in the path of "The Alchemy rIndex" and "Vheissu" taking a more melodic side to their song structure. Beggars features rsome of Thrice's best songs ever written (The Weight, Wood and Wire, In Exile). rFor people who werent a fan of older Thrice with the more hardcore sound, will find rthemselves at home with Beggars and its top notch songwriting. That being said, no fan of rThrice would be able to turn down this album. Its simply great, awesome song writing and rquite possibly showing Thrice at their instrumentally best. In alot of ways this could be rThrice's best album to date.

Almost fully eschewing their original punk influenced sound, and continuing to elaborate on the foundation set by their alchemy index eps, as well as including elements of vocalist dustin's solo country album, Thrice has released one of their most diverse cds ever.

At the beginning Beggars was a dissapointment, and I was quite content with this opinuin. The problem was though I based this opinuin after hearing only I few songs, so today I thought I should put this in so I can acually give an acual rating. The first two songs, which I have already heard, passed without any impact, then came Circles and that just had to fuck everything up. With an atmosphere relating to the Air Ep, which was my favorite of the 4, I was afraid that I may have to embarrass myself with a drastic change of opinuin. But with a lack of edge and some tracks coming off as uninspired, this didn't have to happen. There are still some very strong tracks that still show that Thrice can make an impact but although this in an excellent release, with the expectations set with The Alchemy Index and Vheissu this is a slight disappointment.

It's as if the members of Thrice are trying to make sure that their only fans reside on Sputnikmusic. Another poor effort. Borderline prog and just plain uninteresting, this is Thrice with even less power than before.

Well it's no Vheissu, Thrice's newest outting is earnest and heartfelt. The hardcore moments fans have come to adore have been eradicated, and instead replaced with a softer, more touching side. After the Alchemy Index, it was anyone's guess as to where Thrice would go, but the fact still remains that they have the talent to work within many different genre's. This band has mastered their craft as far as I'm concerned.